The Change is coming or so they say . . . 4th November 2008

Well it has been a couple of days but I thought I shouldn't let time pass with out commenting on the 2008 US Election. The United States of American has just voted and chosen Barack Obama to be their 44th President. Agree or disagree, history was made on this day. The first ever African American President. Incredible and I think it is a great thing. It shows (at least I hope it does) that tolerance and acceptance for one another is on the rise and hopefully bigotry, racism and hatred are being squashed once and for all. I know it is not the end of these and many other important issues but it is a huge step towards where we want to be. It has been interesting to say the least living in the States at this time and to see and hear first hand all that has been going on in the last 18 months and especially in the last month leading up to Tuesday's vote.

The whole process has been interesting. Even the pure fact that you have to register to vote at each election regardless of whether or not you voted in the last one. The fact that you don't have to vote at all if you don't want to. Incredible to me. I realise this is coming from someone who has grown up with compulsory voting but still the thought that such a small minority decide for the entire nation is ludicrous to me. I was interested to see just how many more people voted in this election compared to the last one and many of those people voting for the very first time. The fact that there was an African American Presidential candidate and to a lesser degree, a woman vying for the VP spot was always going to bring people out of the wood work and that is a good thing I think. Although as non political as I am, to not care at all or not care enough about the future of your country and the quality of your own life to take the time to vote is just mind boggling. Take an interest in your countries future, your future for goodness sake. Anyway I am rambling.

I don't want to get into the politics or even say who I thought should have or shouldn't have won but as I said it was interesting to see what goes on. We were actually here 4 years ago when Bush was re-elected but it is different now that we actually live here. Obviously we are involved in our community here and affected directly by what happens.

It is hard to see but the signs on this house caught my attention because they were counting down the days and adding things to their house everyday. They have things written in the windows as well but like I said, it is a little hard to see it all in this little photo. It was something we found . . . I don't want to say interesting again . . . intriguing. Everyone (almost everyone, which sounds like a contradiction considering what I just said about people NOT voting but there you go. Yet another mystery of the United States) so lots of people put up election signs in their front yards letting everyone know who they were supporting. Which is fine but it is funny to see 6 or 8 signs lined up on front lawn. People wearing political pins on their chests and putting stickers on their cars. Political emails being sent out everyday and the bashing from one party to another is just crazy. It is hard to describe and I know that some people do these things at home (in Australia) but not any where near the same extent. I have never know anyone to have a Johnny Howard or Kevin Rudd Bobble head on their desk at work. lol. Funny and interesting. There is that word again.

It was interesting and a little disturbing listening to people on election night once the result was announced. I hope regardless of who you supported we can all come together to fix our social and economical problems, because right now there are a tone of them. And I say we because I mean not only Americans but the entire world . . . . regardless of what a lot of Americans think, there is a big bright world out there and everyone needs to contribute not just the US.

As I said, regardless of your views I think we are all in for an interesting road ahead. I hope one that is a brighter than the one we've been on lately. One thing I must say though is that I think the result shows that Americans are finally coming to terms with tolerance and equality. At least I hope so and it's about time too. We are each children of our God whether you believe that or not, it doesn't change the fact that it is true. We need to show more love and understanding in this world and be the people we want to be instead of just talking about it. Hopefully this is a big step in the right direction.

That is about as political as I get in the public forum. Aside from casting my own vote that is.